The U.S. Department of State raised its travel advisory for Israel to its highest level today: “Do not travel: armed conflict, terrorism and civil unrest." The move comes the same day as news reports that the U.S. has sent an “armada” of aerial tankers to Europe. As many as two dozen KC-135 Stratotankers and KC-46 Pegasuses landed at U.S. bases in Spain, Greece, Germany, Italy and Scotland, according to the Washington Post. Another report said that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had also ordered heavy lift cargo jets to bases in Europe, apparently a reference to the American C-5A, the largest cargo aircraft in U.S. inventory.

Yesterday, Hegseth acknowledged that he had sent U.S. forces to the Middle East, without offering any specific details. “Over the weekend, I directed the deployment of additional capabilities to the United States Central Command Area of Responsibility,” Hegseth posted on X. Central Command is headquartered in Tampa, Florida, but has command over all U.S. forces in the Middle East, including American units stationed in Iraq and Kuwait, as well as U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf states of Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and a U.S. Naval base in Bahrain.

Hegseth couched the U.S. military moves in terms that sound benign, but usually mask other, more sinister motives: “Protecting U.S. forces is our top priority and these deployments are intended to enhance our defensive posture in the region.” When you start hearing words like “posture” and “enhance,” something is going on at the Pentagon that they’re not talking about.

The President of the United States, however, was talking yesterday afternoon before he departed the G-7 Summit in Alberta, Canada. As he posed with other leaders for a photograph, Trump was heard telling them, “I have to be back. There is something I have got to do.” Trump had just refused to sign a joint statement by other G-7 leaders calling on Israel and Iran to deescalate the conflict. Shortly before announcing he was leaving the summit, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”

He just can’t resist telegraphing his intentions even as his Secretary of Defense is rattling sabers like ordering the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its battle group of destroyers from the South China Sea through the Singapore Straight into the Central Command area of responsibility. The USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group is already located in the Gulf of Aden where it has been overseeing the fight with the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Great Britain announced on Saturday that it was sending fighter jets to the Middle East “as a precautionary move to protect British bases and personnel,” according to British Finance Minister Rachel Reeves. Last year during the exchange of missiles between Israel and Iran, British jets shot down Iranian drones that were flying towards Israel.

Late yesterday evening, headlines in the New York Times and Washington Post started talking about whether Trump will make the decision to use the 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the largest non-nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal, against the Iranian uranium enrichment facility in Fordo, Iran. The U.S. is the only nation that has the huge bunker-buster bomb and the only aircraft that can deliver it, the B-2 bomber. Israel has long wanted the weapon and the B-2 bomber, but the U.S. has refused to supply it.

Experts say the bunker buster is the only weapon that could destroy the Iranian nuclear facility, which is buried deep underground. One report said that the only way the Fordo facility could be destroyed would be if a wave of B-2 bombers delivered one bunker buster after another, each of them dropped down the same hole made by the previous bombs.

Trump dropped another hint where this is all probably going when he posted this on Truth Social today from Canada before he left to return to the White House: “IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”

Meanwhile, American dependents have been flown on military aircraft out of Bahrain, where the U.S. maintains a huge naval facility, to Italy, where they were put on commercial flights to return to the U.S. The State Department had already flown staff out of U.S. embassies around the Middle East, including the ones in Iraq and Kuwait.

Even later this evening, a new statement was issued by the G-7 leaders, this time including President Trump: “We, the leaders of the G7, reiterate our commitment to peace and stability in the Middle East. In this context, we affirm that Israel has a right to defend itself. We reiterate our support for the security of Israel.”

With all the talk of aircraft carriers and tankers and cargo planes and jets being sent to the Middle East to defend American interests, I would definitely keep my eye peeled for some sort of wag-the-dog fake Iranian provocation that will be ginned up to justify the deployment of B-2 bombers to “enhance” the American “defensive posture in the region.”

Unless I miss my guess, they’re burning the midnight oil in the Situation Room in the White House as we speak. If you haven’t downloaded the Truth Social app yet, now would be a good time, because that’s The Room Where It Happens for this president.

Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels. He writes every day at luciantruscott.substack.com and you can follow him on Bluesky @lktiv.bsky.social and on Facebook at Lucian K. Truscott IV. Please consider subscribing to his Substack.

Reprinted with permission from Lucian Truscott Newsletter.